This is the first mention I have ever seen of the attempt to blackmail an UNSCOM inspector using sexual compromise -- and I've followed this story pretty closely. Butler doesn't mention it in his book, The Greatest Threat, for example. I doubt the timing of Wolfowitz's remark is accidental. It's always been a puzzle to me that no one on the anti-Saddam side could identify a plausible motive for Ritter's switch -- including Richard Butler, who surely knows Ritter better than most. It looks to me like they gave this guy enough rope to hang himself and lead the "peace movement" lemmings off a cliff. And now the time has come to settle all family business...
I doubt the timing of Wolfowitz's remark is accidental.Um, no, not at all. He was reading from prepared remarks....he was very good at answering the questions, but none of the assembled reporters asked the question--or at least the parts of the Q & A I saw on the tube over the lunch hour.
And I do remember Richard Butler saying to Ritter on Donahue last week something about Ritter's lovely wife & their contributions--and I was puzzled, because I didn't think Ritter's wife worked for the inspections team.